After donning the period costume for Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh is back on familiar territory with this bittersweet weekend-in-the-life of a South London estate. Tim Spall is the glum minicab driver knocked out of his rut following a family tragedy; Ruth Sheen the plucky single mum who sings karaoke by night and grapples with her daughter's abusive boyfriend by day. All told, it's vintage Leigh; blooming from the banal into a stuff-of-life fable that's wise, witty and profound.

"Another work to be remembered from a film-maker who is utterly unique": Derek Malcolm, the Guardian

Changing Lanes

Friday August 23, 7pm, UGCSaturday August 24, 9.30pm, UGC

Ben Affleck and Samuel L Jackson face up to one another in what might best be described as an old-fashioned immorality tale. After a car crash in rush hour traffic, Affleck's city lawyer fails to leave Jackson his insurance details. Jackson's recovering alcoholic is then late for a custody hearing, and loses his children. But Affleck has left behind an important document relating to the plundering of a charitable foundation, with which Jackson taunts him for the rest of the movie. As the two men settle into the vindictive cycle of their battle with each other, their personal weaknesses inevitably come to the fore.

"Despite slick production values and director Roger Michell's tick-tock pacing, the final effect is like having two guys yelling in your face for two hours": Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

This uncompromising exploration of the evils of the policy of assimilation practised against the Aboriginal population by the Australian government in the 1950s and 1960s caused no small measure of controversy at home. Kenneth Branagh features (gratis) as a government official in the tale of girls forcibly removed from their families and sent to live in a camp. Parallels with Australia's current treatment of refugees are inevitable. Philip Noyce, director of Dead Calm, and Clear and Present Danger, turns his talents on his home country, which may not thank him.

"Rabbit Proof Fence is a true milestone in the Aussie film industry.... It's not afraid to make a powerful statement which needed to be said": Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons

A stellar British cast is lumped together in this rambunctious, jolly film, with mostly pleasing results. Rhys Ifans is on fine form as the safe Joe partner to Shirley Henderson, who still harbours a soft spot for her dangerous ex, Jimmy - a role which allows Robert Carlyle a stab at a kind of Begbie-lite. Ricky Tomlinson makes an appearance as a country and western singer. The film, which was directed by Shane Meadows, he of A Room for Romeo Brass, was a critical hit at Cannes, and should please a broad audience."A film of small pleasures and a big heart, it is hard to dislike": Allan Hunter, Screen Daily

More from Kiarostami in the is-it-documentary-or-is-it-film vein. The dashboard interviews of Through the Olive Trees meet the first person approach of Homework as a young woman drives a succession of people around contemporary Tehran. Neither she nor the camera ever leave the front of the car, but the film attains a surprising degree of depth.

" It is an intriguing and unexpectedly sophisticated viewing experience, but you have to wonder if this is not too strenuous a refusal of the possibilities of cinema; and without seeming facetious, how different is it from TV's Marion and Geoff?" Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian

The one bona-fide controversy of this year's Cannes film festival, Irréversible looks set to stir similar hackles north of the border. In following his nihilistic Seul Contre Tous, writer-director Gaspar Noé has dug deeper into the darker recesses of the human psyche and plucked out this black-as-pitch revenge drama. Irréversible showcases some anguished playing from Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassell, hinges around a harrowing rape scene and plays out (à la Memento) in reverse, from nightmarish aftermath to sun-dappled introduction. Audience reaction is sure to run to similar extremes.

Just in case we hadn't already filed Mexico as a wellspring of great modern cinema, along comes Japon to drum home the fact. And yet where Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien were giddying, adrenalised affairs, Carlos Reygadas's sumptuous debut proves altogether more meditative and soulful. The plot is folk-tale simple; relocating a depressed, disabled painter (Alejandro Ferretu) to a stark rural community, where he beds down in a peasant's barn and begins - slowly, leisurely - to reconnect with nature. Beautifully acted (by Ferretu and co-star Magdalena Flores), Japon is a startling, slow-burning beguiler of a movie.